Thursday, May 24, 2007

'06-'07 Quiz XXIII

"No, No, No," was what Zim was yelling to Denny Doyle when DD tried to tag and score from third on a fly ball in game 6 of the '75 Series. Doyle thought Zim was shouting "Go, Go, Go..."

Similar to Suppan's disaster in '04 when Jose Oquendo was, as Bill Simmons put it, "The first third-base coach in baseball history to turn and walk away from a baserunner in disgust in the middle of a play...

It's what 3rd Base Coach Don Zimmer yelled at Denny Doyle in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Doyle was on third base, and Fred Lynn had just hit a fly ball to shallow left. Denny thought The Gerbil had said "Go, go, go" and took off for home, where he was thrown out easily for a double play. Then, of course, Pudge hit the game-winner off the foul pole in the bottom of the 12th.

And, of course, I have a story to tell about that play. About a dozen years ago I met Denny Doyle for business; he came into our offices looking for financing for his baseball academy. Great guy, told some stories, let me try on his '75 AL Champs ring after he noticed me admiring it. So, of course, I had to ask him about that play, and he completely threw Zimmer under the bus...as he correctly noted, with a full house of screaming fans, it's impossible to distinguish "No!" from "Go!"....the correct thing for the coach to do in that situation is to yell "stay!" It was pretty clear that Denny thought Zimmer was an idiot. Which, of course, he still is.

I guess I should add that the significance of the fact that Zimmer the Idiot said "no, no, no" is that it allowed the signature moment of Carlton Fisk's career, and one of the most memorable moments overall in Sox history, to occur. If Doyle hadn't run, the Sox would have still had bases-loaded w/only one out, and probably would have scored and ended the game that inning.

All the above comments were posted just now, at 11:23, without anyone having seen anyone else's answer. So, we've got a three-way tie, but Matty will get a little more for technically being first. And Ryan will get a tiny bit for coming up with something unique that I couldn't find myself.

Matty: 1.8AJM & redsock: 1.5 eachRyan: 0.2

About "no, no, no": That thing with Zimmer just popped into my head yesterday, and I wondered if everyone knew this, or if you had to have grown up watching every special on the Red Sox that came on TV to have come across it. I checked the 'net, and unless you knew to type "1975" into your search, you weren't finding anything about this. So this turned out to be a good "know your fairly obscure Sox trivia"-type quiz.

I read a 2003 letter to, I think the USA Today, written bythe nephew of the Doyles. He sided with his uncle Brian, the Yankee Doyle. He said "the curse is real," and said that Zimmer got "so tired of losing," he went to the Yanks. So, AJM, next time you see Doyle, ask him how his prick nephew feels about 2004.

Please note, under this crazy "comment moderation" system of quiz answering (thanks, asshole stalkers!), I just get your comments when I get to my computer. So, had I been going on vacation to a place where computers don't exist, not to return for a week, a lot more people would have a chance at each quiz. Or, like now, I could purposely wait until Kara answers before publishing the other comments. But, we go by the honor system here at RSF/PT. Whenever I happen to get to the computer, that's when comments are published. It's like how when I tally the points, I never look at the standings until afterwards...

YOu can thank Trotman for making me have to switch to comment moderation. (I can give you his work address if you like...)

But you have to see it from the other two answerererer's perspective: They saw the question, no other answers were there, and they answered correctly. So Nichols gave you a little more for actually being first, but that's all he can do.... Sorry.